The literature is replete with products capable of cleaning hard surfaces such as ceramic tile floors, hardwood floors, counter tops and the like. In the context of cleaning floors, numerous devices are described comprising a handle and some means for absorbing a fluid cleaning composition. Such devices include those that are reusable, including mops containing cotton strings, cellulose and/or synthetic strips, sponges, and the like. The use of any such device or mop requires considerable effort.
Examples of disposable mops include: U.S. Pat. No. 5,094,559, issued Mar. 10, 1992 to Rivera et al., which describes a mop that includes a disposable cleaning pad comprising a scrubber layer for removing soil from a soiled surface, a blotter layer to absorb fluid after the cleaning process, and a liquid impervious layer positioned between the scrubber and blotter layer and U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,015, issued May 30, 1995 to Garcia, which describes a mop having removable, washable work pads, said patents being incorporated herein by reference.
The cleaning implement herein preferably comprises a removable cleaning pad, which alleviates the need to rinse the pad during use. This cleaning pad preferably possesses sufficient absorbent capacity, on a gram of absorbed fluid per gram of cleaning pad basis, to allow the cleaning of a large area, such as that of the typical hard surface floor (e.g., 80–100 ft2), without the need to change the pad. This typically requires the use of a superabsorbent material, preferably of the type disclosed hereinafter. The detergent composition that is used with such superabsorbent matierials must be carefully formulated to avoid defeating the goal of using such superabsorbent material.
The preferred cleaning implements have a pad which offers beneficial soil removal properties due to continuously providing a fresh surface, and/or edge to contact the soiled surface, e.g., by provideng a plurality of surfaces that contact the soiled surface during the cleaning operation.